influenced a man up to no good. that is the suspect right there, kidnapper still at large. police are hoping the sketch and you will help lead to the arrest. >> amazing how a terrifying situation became so amazing. happy ending. a lot of news. let's get to to the "newsroom" and ms. skarl costello. every praise to you, carol? >> thank you. i appreciate it. have a great day. "newsroom" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com happening in the newsroom, a night of rebirth. >> one, two, three! >> los angeles rallies and the clippers conquer the court. the team's owner banned. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life. >> and fined just 1/1000 of his birth. will donald sterling be forced to sell his team? botched execution. an oklahoma inmate and 43

minutes of hell. >> we didn't know if he was still dieing or if they were still pumping drugs in him. >> a horrifying situation. >> they wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. shades of katrina. >> they have gone up there with chainsaws to try to be able to cut holes in the roofs and get people out of there. >> people trapped in their attacks, almost a foot of rain in 24 hours. >> the moment of death is just an inch away. you're live in the cnn "newsroom." good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining me. the nba handed down a sports death penalty to clippers owner donald sterling. the big question is how sterling respond? will other nba owners vote to force sterling to sell the team? clippers fans, they raised the roof for their heroes last

night. >> one, two, three! [ cheers and applause ] >> it was the first time the team had been home since sterling's racist rant audiotape surfaced. the clippers won a pivotal game five in the play-off series with golden state. coach doc rivers say it is game was cathartic for fans as well as the team. >> you think it was just the players. it was the fans, too. everybody was going through this. it was almost like everybody wanted to exhale tonight, and it was good. >> it was good. the game came hours after commissioner adam silver acted decisively, bang sterling from the nba for life. that means sterling can't go to the games, practices or enter any clippers facilities. sterling was also fined $2.5 mill qulun. now he faces the possibility of losing his franchise. >> as for mr. sterling's ownership interest in the

clippers, i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens. >> there's been no public comment from sterling since this nba ruling, but before silver's sanctions, sterling told fox sports the clippers were not for sale. if sterling wants to fight, we know he has a long history of legal battles. if the clippers do go up for sale, boxer floyd mayweather, junior is lowing his hat into the ring. mayweather says he can well afford it. rachel nichols and dan simons are covering the business side of the story. i would like to start with dan. you're outside the staples center. there was talk about fan boy cots, but the fans showed up in force. >> reporter: they really did, carol. for the first two fu days of this story the mood was down

right somber. what adam silver did is he essentially removed the idea of any kind of rebellion. it's almost as if he gave the fans permission to cheer and celebrate. as you said, it wasn't even clear if there was going to be any sort of boycott. we didn't know what kind of show of support we would see. would there be a full house? as soon as that decision was rendered, we know what happened. the fans came here in a big way to cheer on their team. i would suggest to you if you weren't cheering for a team prior to all of this, you're now a los angeles clippers fan, carol. >> i think you're right about that. rachel, the game was great, but now comes the hard part. tell us about the next steps for the nba. >> well, adam silver did everything in his power. he banned donald sterling for life, made him be able to basically stay away from the nba in any capacity in the future, fined him $2.5 million which is chump change for donald sterling, sbu the maximum of what adam silver was allowed to

fine him. however, separating him from his team, forcing him to sell the team, silver can't do that on his own. what he did was very interesting. he threw down the gauntlet publicly to the oerns. only the other owners can remove donald sterling. they have to do it by a 3/4 vote which is extremely high. we heard in the days leading up to this some trepidation from other owners. we heard mark cuban say it's, quote, a slippery slope to remove a fellow owner for comments he made in private. we heard some concern. what adam silver did was very interesting. i asked him in the press conference do you think you have the votes, he said, i don't know, i haven't polled the other owners. the ones i talked to i feel confident in he threw it out in public and is going to force the hand of the other owners to basically have to say to their fans, to their players, yeah, i'm going to side with the racist or i'm going to vote yes,

which decision do you think they're going to make, carol? >> there is this issue, rachel, that a lot of people are talking about today, frankly. so mr. sterling says these heinous things in the privacy of his own home. should he really be forced to sell his business? he didn't break the law. he said awful things but didn't break any laws. why should he have to sell his team? >> the question is this somebody you want as a business partner, someone you want to be associated with. if you're a sponsor, do you want to spend your money with this man? if you're a player, you want to play for this man? if you are tnt or espn, do you want this man as a televisioner in partner? i think they want him out. >> dan, i know fans were happy at the game last night. but as time goes on how do you think they'll work out in the

long run? >> i think it depends on what happens. is mr. sterling going to contest this? most legal ablists say if he does, he will lose. i think going forward in terms of the play-offs, i think there's going to be a full should i work for the clippers going forward? the next game, of course, is in oakland. in terms of the way they played last night. for the players, there was a real burden lifted off their chest. they came out and played very well and won the game. now they have the momentum going into oakland. >> dan simon, rachel nichols, many thanks. still to con in the "newsroom," a condemned killer dies of a heart attack in oklahoma 43 minutes after being given a lethal injection. pamela brown has more on this botched execution. >> reporter: that's right, carol, an execution gone wrong sparking fierce debate. what happened? we'll tell you right after this break.

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first the cookie at check-in. then a little family fun. with breakfast for 4 and wifi. join us for the family fun package. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. an execution prison officials say usually takes less than 12 minutes, dragged out for a tortuous 43 minutes. last night oklahoma tried a new cocktail of drugs to execute killer clayton lockett. 16 minutes into the execution, witnesses say he was still conscious and trying to talk and in excruciating pain. cnn's pamela brown joins us with

more on this story. hi, pamela. >> reporter: hey there, carol. authorities are looking into what caused this botched execution, whether it was the way the drugs were administered or the combination of drugs. the inmate who died lost a court battle to find out the source of the drugs used in his execution. last night witnesses say they watched in horror as he seemingly tried to talk well after being given the lethal cocktail. >> he was struggling to talk, those were towards we got out, man, i'm not and something is wrong. >> reporter: they may be the last words spoken by oklahoma inmate clayton lockett uttered during his botched execution. lockett's vein exploded during the eethal injection, prompting authorities to quickly halt the procedure. >> it was my decision at that time to stop the execution. >> reporter: the first drug in the lethal injection cocktail is supposed to render a person unconscious, but witnesses say lockett was still conscious seven minutes after that first injection.

at 16 minutes he seemingly tried to get up and talk. it was then that prison officials closed the blinds, shutting out the media gathered to witness. >> we didn't know what was happening on the other side of the blinds. we didn't know if he was still dieing or if they were still pumping drugs in him. >> reporter: 43 minutes after the first injection, lockett died. >> the inmate suffered what appeared to be a massive heart attack and passed away. >> reporter: lockett and charles warner, both convicted in rape and murder were at the center of a court fight over the drugs used in their executions. the stays were lifted last week saying the men had no right to know the source of the drugs intended to kill them. >> they wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. there should not be another execution in this state until there's a full investigation into what went wrong.

>> oklahoma governor mary fallin issued an executive order granting a two-week delay in executions. oklahoma is one of several states that has been fighting to keep information about the suppliers of lethal drugs confidential. >> that's because these suppliers are afraid of repercussions if it gets out they're supplying these lethal drugs. is that right? >> reporter: that's right. there have been some drug companies who have pulled out and said you can no longer use our drugs for these types of lethal injections, and there are other companies who say, look, we neert going to let you use our drugs unless you keep our names private because of the fear of political backlash and that they could be targeted. that's what's behind the secrecy laws in some of these states. >> pamela brown reporting live from washington this morning. a bit of news in to cnn. it appears the american economy was frozen by a brutally cold winter. a new report says the gdp grew by .1% in the first quarter.

chief business correspondent christine romans is here to parse it out for us. >> not much to parse. it was a really bad first quarter. frozen is the best way to put it. the economy barely moved, barely moved. consumers were the only ones spending money. businesses weren't, the housing market didn't do as well as anybody thought. this was var tough quarter. carol, this is a rear view mirror picture, and the question is, have things begun to thaw? is the economy doing better now? was it mostly weather that held the economy back and is that going to thaw? there are plenty of people this morning, plenty of xhichls who think thinks are getting better. they're hoping for a better jobs report on friday. they're hoping this, the slowest economic growth in two years, hoping it's behind us, not ahead of us, carol. >> christine, thanks so much. "newsroom" is back in a minute.

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a lawyer for the woman at the center of the donald sterling scandal reportedly says she is devastated over what happened. v. stiviano's attorney tells "the l.a. times" she's not his mistress and had nothing to do with releasing the audio tapes of these racist comments. who is v. stiviano. deborah feyerick looks into her background. >> as she left her los angeles home, her intuition proved correct. the 31-year-old woman posting online, quote, one day i will look back at instagram and say, i've been there and i've done that. it was her instagram page and this photo with magic johnson that reportedly sent her boyfriend, donald sterling over

the edge. stiviano was president of a company bearing her name. suspended in 2008 by the california franchise tax board. it was unclear what the company did. stiviano describes herself as artist, lover, writer, chef, poet, stylist, philanthropist saying i do it all. >> she definitely likes the rap world. >> court records and public records show stiviano used five names, vanessa maria perez, monica guy egg goes and maria valdez. during the now famous argument, sterling seems at a loss for words when his girlfriend lays out her ethnicity. >> i'm a mixed girl and you're in love with me. i'm block and mexican whether you like it or not. >> born october 1982, stiviano is almost 50 years younger than the 80-year-old billionaire.

she met the mogul about four years ag goechlt he reportedly began supporting her almost immediately. in a lawsuit filed before the tapes went public, sterling's wife alleges stiviano targeted her husband and initiated and participated in a sexual relationship with him in exchange for gifts allegedly worth more than $2.5 million. those gifts include a $1.8 million l.a. duplex and two bentleys and a ferraris with license plates that read, i heard you v and v hearts you. according to a report she was archiving the conversations eight his request. >> she claims she is not his girlfriend, an employee, an archivist who is tasked at recording conversations and working with a clippers charity. >> reporter: a spokesperson says stiviano did not work for the clippers organization. >> stiviano's lawyer says he

plans to respond in the next several days. it's unclear when the relationship ended or if it ever did officially. however, sterling's wife is suing stiviano saying her husband had no right to use the couple's community property to buy the girlfriend anything, not the apartment, not the cars, nor anything else. the wife wants it back. deborah feyerick, cnn, new york. >> so now the nba turns its focus to other owners pushing them to get donald sterling to sell the team. but should they go along with the legal's plans? talk about that next. when la quinta.com sends sales rep steve hatfield the ready for you alert, the second his room is ready. you know what he brings? any questions? can i get an a, steve? yes! three a's! he brings his a-game! the ready for you alert, only at laquinta.com!

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the ones that keep people out. like this one. and the ones that keep people in. like your living room. go and smell the roses! it's been 54 days since flight 370 disappeared. search crews still have no idea where that plane is or what happened the night it went missing. is it time for the current leadership to step aside and let the united states run the investigation? a new op ed in "the washington post" contends that, quote, there are too many big unanswered questions surrounding the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370 that need reliable answers. the world should now count on america to solve this problem and answer those questions. after all, this is why the world has an america. let's talk about this. i'm joined by aviation analyst

miles o'brien, ocean search specialist rob mccallum. welcome, gentlemen. >> hello. >> miles, is it time? malaysia put together this special team including people from the united states. why not then take the lead? >> i've been saying this all along that in the case of an incident like this, you need a nation that has demonstrated expertise in this particular kind of investigation. if you look the world over, there aren't many nations that have, and certainly no nation has more experience than the united states of america. i think probably it would be better if it was couched in terms of an international investigation, drawing on all the resources of places like australia, great britain, france, that all had very competent, similar structures than the u.s. does to investigate crashes. the bottom line is just because you can buy a 777 doesn't mean you have the expertise sitting in your country to investigate why it might have gone down. that's something i wish the malaysians recognized earlier.

>> rob, i want to run down this team malaysia has announced. malaysia announced participants in this independent investigation, in addition to the team leader, the u.s.'s ntsb along with britain accident investigations branch and china's aircraft accident investigation team among others, as well as representatives from boeing and inmar sat. how do you manage a group like that? >> well, i think that's the key challenge. but importantly all of those groups bring something vital to the table. so you wouldn't want to proceed with a team that didn't have representatives from all of those organizations. over the next few days, we'll see how the leadership is determined. i think you'll see the malaysians will lean on somebody with a great deal of experience, and that may very well be the u.s., or it may be somebody that's had more recent experience such as france with the air france disaster. >> do you think malaysia is willing to do that, miles?

it seems so sensitive about so many things. >> here we are 54 days later. we've been talking about this since pretty much day one. obviously there's been reluctance to do that, reasons for that i suppose. i think that really this is -- a crash like this has implications the world over. there's a fleet of 777s still flying today. god forbid there's a flaw in that that we're going find out the hard way exists. it's very important these investigations are done by the best and brightest minds on the planet. they may not all live in malaysia. as a matter of fact, we know they don't all live in malaysia. this needs to be something that needs to be discussed outside the emotional context of a crash like this. we should be looking at international control in investigations like this marching forward. there is international capability to structure these kinds of investigations. it should become routine. >> rob, i understand that malaysia will finally release its preliminary report tomorrow.

we probably won't find much out from that report. but it's a good start at really being transparent perhaps. >> yes, absolutely. i think information is the sauf that starts to heal the wounds. i think the more information they get and the explanations to put it into context, the earlier they can start to heal. >> and i have to ask you a question about geo resonance. rob mccallum, you told me it was bogus yesterday. i believe you. that is your business. it is bogus. i'm bringing it up one more time for miles to view on this and tell our viewers not to pay attention to this company? >> i have a little expertise in the world of space. i've reached out to some of the best and brightest minds in the world of satellite imagery, no

one knows of any technology that can do what this company claims it did, period. so let's keep that in mind. it's completely unproven if it exists at all and its secret black box technology. this company, which is little known, needs to prove it can do what it has done. it should hone in on a recognized site where there is wreckage already in the ocean, where we know where it is and aim at it and show us what they can see as a result. also, why don't they take the time to look at the search area in the indian ocean and prove the wreckage is there. >> rob mccallum, miles o'brien, thank you for your insight. i appreciate it. >> you're welcome. still to come, banned for life in the game. can the nba also force donald sterling to sell the clippers? should they have that power? we'll talk about that next.

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now the healing process begins. that's how the los angeles clippers responded to news that team owner donald sterling was banned for life from the nba after admitting he made racist remarks caught on tape. the league's commissioner says he will also urge the 29 other owners to force sterling to sell the team, a team he's owned more than 30 years. nba owner isaiah thomas had this to say about the actions and the meaning both on and off the court. >> this is a game where we transport our culture, transport our values. this is a game that we introduce kids to at a very young age. so this goes way beyond points, rebounds and assists. this really talks about societal values, your basketball values,

team values, the way you work with one another, the way you get along with one another, on and off the playing field. so commissioner silver did a great job yesterday in exemplifies what leadership can and should be in this country. >> with me now to talk about all this, jerry stackhouse, nba tv analyst and host for sirius nba radio, brian clay poll, a clippers season ticket holder and criminal defense attorney, dominique wilkins from the launt hawks and members of the basketball hall of fame and jamelle hill, espn columnist and sideline reporter. welcome to all of you. >> hi, carol. >> i'm glad you're all here. jerry, i want to start with you. kudos to commissioner silver. nobody seems to have any problem at all with the action he took. >> everyone is ecstatic about the decision and thought he came down with a heavy hammer. everyone feels there's no place in our league for those type of septemberments from anybody,

from an owner, a player. i think he came down as hard as he could. but i think the hard part is still ahead of us. tufl tu actually removing him is going to be tougher. >> we'll get into that in a second. i wanted to ask jamelle, do you think silver's actions healed all wounds? >> no, i wouldn't say they healed all wounds. i think that would be trivializing the problem. i do think we have to examine why it took this to get donald sterling removed in the first place. he's a career racist. his track record is well established as some of the things he's done. particularly the racial and housing discrimination suits that he's settled in addition to the sexual harassment suits. so i guess in one way it's good because the stench is finally removed. i think the nba board of governors, commissioner adam silver as he goes forward, he needs to hold the owners to the

highest level of characters just as he does the players. >> dominique, three-quarters of the owners have to vote to push this guy out of ownership of an nba team. do you think that's possible? >> i think it's very possible, and i think it's the right thing to do because again, like she said, he has a track record of racism. i think the owners should come together. ultimately it's up to them what they do with this situation. i think all the owners will vote to have him removed. i think it's the right thing to do. >> dominique, do you agree? can dominique hear me? i'm sorry. i'm so discombobulated. i apologize. brian claypool, that's who i was asking. >> dominique and i resemble each other -- >> you don't at all. you do not at all.

>> i'm kidding. >> carol, can i comment on something jemelle said? i think she hit the nail on the head. i think this is a wake-up call for our country. i think one area that adam silver fell short of is investigating why it took ten years to eliminate donald sterling. i think what the nba has to do is institute some kind of independent review of why it took so long to get rid of donald sterling and then implement preventative measures to make sure this doesn't happen again. for example, maybe an anonymous hotline, a committee that will investigate all owners, not only in the nba, but in all professional sports. so i think he fell short. we've got it, we've got to do more, and let's use this as an opportunity to galvanize eliminating racism in our society. >> okay. so let's talk about -- like throwing donald sterling completely out of the league.

dominique, i'll ask you this question, you're an attorney, right? let's say the nba says mr. sterling said these heinous things. what happens when the next owner says something a little less heinous? who is to decide what's bad enough to eliminate someone from owning an nba team? >> i think, again, the question was posed -- this is a wake-up call for the country, that we're not going to tolerate these type of actions. so unfortunately in life it takes a dramatic act for people to make change. ichb fortunately with change sometimes comes consequences. so you've got to prepare yourself for that. at the same time, something like this needed to happen to wake up this country to say, hey, look, enough is enough. let's move past all of this nonsense because bigotry and racism in this country should not still exist on this level.

and when you bring it into the workplace, sports -- sports is just a very minute part of this. you're talking about a national problem. so how do you get rid or combat racism? be successful, be above it, do or play or be who you are. don't let someone's ignorance who you become. >> and there should be serious consequences. jerry, i'll pose this question to you. so what mr. sterling did, it wasn't illegal. he said something really heinous, but nothing about it was illegal. should he lose his business over that? >> that's the slippery slope that everybody is talking about now. i think from the standpoint -- he talked about -- even on his tape recorder, he said it's bigger than me, it's part of a bigger society. what society is he talking about? is he talking about other people that share his views and share who he has a dialogue with in

the league? are we going to sit here and think that he's the only one that maybe has this view? we hope so and hope that we've eliminated him, but the law of averages and probabilities say that's not the case, that there's other people that share this view with him, and the fact that he records all of his tapes, does he have some dialogue with someone else saying the same thing. >> jemelle, there's a first amendment right in this country and you the right to say what you want. if that's true, why should you lose your business over heinous comments? >> you've got to remember, speech is free but consequences are not. i liken this to if, say, you were a franchise owner of a mcdonald's. yes, it is your business, you still represent mcdonald's as a brand. i-report espn as a brand as soon as i wake up. you represent cnn as a brand as soon you wake up. you know if any of us were in this situation where these kinds of words or exposed to the

greater public, we would probably be terminated by our employer. that's the way it works. that's life. that's how it goes, is that he was representing the nba and he was in a position to influence. that's the part we forget about this. it's not that he just thought these things. we saw from the previous allegations and the racial housing discrimination lawsuits he settled that he was putting his thoughts, views and opinions into action by making people's lives miserable. that's why he's no longer a part of the nba. >> i totally get it. brian, let's go back to the beginning. if the nba knew all these things about mr. sterling, why did it allow him to become an owner in the first place? isn't it a little late? >> it's not too late, carol. again, this is a wake-up call. there are some legal standards that support donald sterling being removed. he signed on to a constitution with the nba that said -- it has a long termination paragraph in

the constitution, carol. it says that, if you do something that is morally repugnant or doesn't uphold the reputation of the nba, then you can be removed. that's the legal part. morally, what could be worse in our society than what he did? i will tell you that unless he is removed by these owners, it's an endorsement of racism in our society. i think there's no choice here. there would be no los angeles clippers if he remains owner. if your boss at cnn said i don't like white females at my anchor, do you think your boss would be working tomorrow? >> i'm not talking about my boss. i'm talking about the owner of a company. >> but he signed on. carol, he signed on to a franchising agreement with the nba that says, if you do something that's not consistent with the values of the nba, you can be removed as an owner.

it's not much unlike an arbitration clause where we go to the doctor, we sign an agreement. if the doctor does something wrong, we can have a jury trial. those have been upheld as well. >> i get all of this. it illustrates hoye hard the road is going to be here for. thank you jerry stackhouse, jamelle hill, dominique will sons. you're still with us, but your satellite -- we ran out of time. thanks to all of you. still to come in the "newsroom," rescue crews are using chainsaws to free flood victims. indra petersons is following the storm. >> good morning. flooding being one side of the storm. still talking about another round of severe weather. the potential is out there. we'll talk about who and where coming up in a few minutes. the second his room is ready.ot so he knows exactly when he can prep for his presentation. and when steve is perfectly prepped, ya know what he brings? and that's how you'll increase market share. any questions?

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torrential rains along the gulf coast are turning neighborhoods into rivers causing some people to cut holes into their roofs to escape. a man rescued from floodwaters in mobile, alabama. you can see him holding onto a tree when a rescue worker swims to him with a life jacket. they were able to get him to safety thankfully. near pensacola, florida, more than a foot of rain has already fallen. the water rising to the roof of one suv. so far the floodwaters there have killed one person. a state of emergency has been declared for 26 florida counties. roads and bridges have been washed out. emergency workers are using boats and the national guard to save everyone. that's more than100 people according to affiliate wear and rescue teams needed chainsaws to free some of them. >> they went up there with chainsaws to try to cut holes in the roofs to get the people out of there because the water levels have risen chest high and

deeper in some of these homes. there's nowhere to go but up. once you get there in the attic, people can't go anywhere else. they're trying to utilize the chainsaws to cut folks out. i don't have a specific update on how far along we are in that progress. just getting to those locations has been a logistical nightmare. >> we go to new york for the forecast. is it still raining in florida? >> you look at the radar right now. not only is it rain, it's not stopping. it's something we call training. you see one thunderstorm after another. it's that rain cloud over your house that will not leave. we talk about flooding concerns. we say one to two inches an hour. that does produce some really severe flooding. we were seeing rainfall rates as high as five inches an hour. let's look at the last 24 hours. you have the wind coming off the ocean here. it's pulling all of that warm, humid air from the gulf. it just continues to train those thunderstorms. definitely continuing to see heavy rain in that region. also even spreading into the

northeast. you're talking about places seeing 11, 12 inches of rain. now, of course, that's just the isolated locally. we're talking about one to five inches of rain depending on where you are to the northeast today. this is going to be the concern. heavy amounts of rain in short periods of time. still severe weather. we've been talking about tornado threat. heavy thunderstorms. that's still out there today including places like d.c., pittsburgh, all of the way down through florida. so we still have that concern as well especially going through the afternoon. keep in mind with this going on, huge delays toward newark. 3.5-hour delays heading out to the airport. >> thanks so much. still to come in the ne "newsroo "newsroom," he's banned for life. should donald sterling be forced to sell his team for something he said in the privacy of his own home? we'll talk about that next.

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los angeles clippers owner donald sterling is facing a lifetime ban from the nba in a move from the league to strip the team from him. nba commissioner adam silver act the swiftly and decisively in response to the racist comments that sterling made in those taped conversations with his girlfriend, v. stiviano. should the stiff punishment including the nba trying to force a sale of the clippers be le levied over something sterling said in the privacy of his own home.

let's talk about that. welcome to both of you. lee, i want to start with you. it's going to be difficult to force mr. sterling to sell his team, isn't it? >> it may seem like it's difficult but the truth is that if three-fourths of the nba owners think donald sterling shouldn't own the team, they can begin to move into a process to strip earsterling of his team, the clippers. it's interesting to me, i have yet to hear anybody that has come out to support what it is that donald sterling has said. >> i'm not sure that mr. sterling cares about that. >> first of all, i'm not sure that it is accurate that three-fourths of the owners can begin the process of devesting him of his team. the nba constitution and its article 13 has a laundry list of things that if an owner does them, three-fourths of the other

owners can begin that process. the kinds of things that he has done in this case is not on that list. i have a copy of the constitution right here. i have just read the list. i don't see any kind of language that the other owners could fit this kind of behavior under unless this has been amended in the last couple of years, this is a document that's a couple years old. even if there is such language, i'm not sure that the owners want to go down the road of litigation. what they're going to do is donald sterling today owns a business that is simply not viable because he has made himself a pariah. the sponsors have abandoned him. fans will boycott the games. players won't want to play for him. other owners will make him very unwelcome as an owner even though he's not allowed to participate. i don't think he wants to own this team for very long given that it's not a viable franchise anymore. >> we'll see.

he's very litigious. i'll put it this way. let's assume the nba doesn't have three-quarters of the owners wanting to oust this guy from owning a team and the reason is because they could say something that others think is heinous and judge them and then they would have to force their teams. isn't that the slippery slope we're talking about? >> it is a slippery slope here. there really is a slippery slope. what's happening here is something much bigger than just sports. sports has ripped open a much larger conversation. the truth is whichever way it comes down and whichever way lawyers work it out, this process of uncoupling if you will sterling from the clippers has begun. that said, sports has ripped open a much larger conversation. so you have really in a few players. one, something that happened in sports. two, you have issues about what goes on in the business of sports and how it works out.

and three, and underlying that, are all of these issues that exist in society from racism and racism by the way is a big form of bullying. you have privacy in business. a host of issues that our society has really yet to get into and resolve. that's what this story is really about. >> i understand that. i'm just talking about the legal aspects of the difficulty that nba is going to have ousting this guy from owning a team. what if mr. sterling's wife owns half of the team? what then? >> she does have a community property interest in the team i assume unless they have a prenuptial agreement that would exclude that. that's a complication. that's part of the problem here. a billion dollar asset is not easy to dispose of. there are complicated accounting and tax and marital property and contract issues that will have to be worked out. i think that once the emotion of the moment dies down in

sterling's head, he'll work with the to try to dispose of this asset. i can't believe he'll want to litigate to hold onto an asset that's not viable and that he's not going to be allowed to participate in going forward. in a year or two, donald sterling will not own this team but the process by which we get to that point i think is not going to be litigation. >> all right. we'll see. thanks to both of you. the next hour of "cnn newsroom" starts now. happening now in the "newsroom," a night of rebirths. >> one, two, three. >> los angeles rallies and clippers conquer the court. the team's owner banned. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life. >> and fined just 1/1,000th of his work. will donald sterling be forced

to sell his team? >> botched execution. an oklahoma inmate and 43 minutes of hell. >> we didn't know if he was still dying or pumping drugs in him. >> a horrifying situation. >> they wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. shades of katrina. >> they have gone out there with chainsaws to try to cut holes in the roofs to get people out of there. >> people trapped in their attics. almost a foot of rain in 24 hours. >> the moment of death is just an inch away. >> you're live in the "cnn newsroom." good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. we begin this hour in oklahoma where prison officials are scrambling to explain the botched execution of a convicted killer. after being injected with drugs meant to kill him, clayton lockett convulsed on the

journey. we begin with pamela brown. >> reporter: good morning. the inmate who died was told he didn't have a right to information. last night witnesses watched in horror as he struggled to talk well after he was given a lethal chemical cocktail. >> he was struggling to talk. those are words we got out. man, i'm not and something's wrong. >> reporter: they may be the last words spoken by oklahoma inmate clayton lockett uttered during his botched execution. lockett's vein exploded during the lethal injection causing authorities to halt the procedure. the first drug in the lethal injection cocktail is supposed to render a person unconscious but witnesses say lockett was

still conscious seven minutes after that first injection. at 16 minutes, he seemingly tried to get up and talk. it was then that prison officials closed the blinds shutting out the media gathered to witness. >> we didn't know what was happening on the other side of the blinds. we didn't know if he was still dying or if they were still pumping drugs in him. >> reporter: 43 minutes after the first injection, lockett died. >> the inmate suffered what appears to be a massive heart attack and passed away. >> reporter: lockett and charles warner were inmates sentenced to be executed both convicted of rape and murder were at the center of a court fight over the drugs used in their execution. oklahoma's high court initially stayed their executions only to lift those stays last week saying the men had no right to know the source of the drugs intended to kill them. >> they wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. there should for the be another execution in this state until there's a full investigation into what went wrong.

>> reporter: oklahoma governor mary fallon ordered an investigation into the incident and issued an executive order granting a two-week delay in executions in the state. this incident puts the death penalty debate right back on center stage. in a recent cnn poll taken a couple months ago, 50% of americans favor a death penalty over a life sentence for murder. carol? >> all right. pamela brown reporting live from washington. as pamela said, this botched execution will have a ripple effect across the country. is this three drug cocktail really humane? join me now is dr. sanjay gupta and we have a criminal defense attorney and former homicide prosecutor. welcome to both of you. >> good morning. >> so prison officials shot three drugs into lockett. the first a sedative. the next is a paralytic and the third stops his heart, essentially killing him. what went wrong? >> it appears in this case the

sedative, the first drug, it's unclear how much he got. at some point the vein blew. you give medicine through the vein but the vein blew. you don't know exactly how much he's getting anymore. it throws off everything. did he get enough of the first medication, the second, the third? i think that's essentially what seems to have happened here. >> i'll ask you one more question. it's disturbing to even think about. it goes into humane treatment. was he in severe pain? >> you know, it's a challenging question. i will say that none of these drug manufacturers are excited about their drugs being used in this way for that very reason. what exactly is the goal here and what exactly is the person's experience? >> what this does is slowly suffocates a person, right? this three-drug cocktail? >> the first one is supposed to render you sedate enough where you're not aware of your

surroundings. the third paralyzes your diaphragm so you can't take breaths anymore. third paralyzes the heart. is it humane? it's a philosophical question. if it works right, the person should not experience anything. they should be sedate and unaware of their surroundings. in this case it did not work right. there are imperfections in the system. >> lockett's lawyer, the man executed, wanted oklahoma to provide information about these drugs because they feared some of the drugs could have expired. is that possible? >> it's certainly possible they could have been expired. i was looking at the headline. botched execution. it might be botched execution leads to botched execution because the victim in the case was raped, shot twice and buried alive according to state prosecutors. he now is punished in a way that the u.s. constitution clearly does not allow and that is in an

inhumane way with pain and suffering. get back to the issue of the drugs, i mean, we're coming into the end game of the administration of the death penalty in america i think. it's largely as a result of the fact that states can't get proper drugs to administer the death penalty. death penalty opponents put pressure on drug companies to keep drugs away from prison officials. it's difficult to humanely administer the death penalty if there is such a thing. >> i want to ask you about the process. there are witnesses to executions in this country as there were in this case. when the vein blew, right, officials closed the curtain so the witnesses could not see. should they have done that? >> this is a common procedure that i've seen happen numerous times on administration of the death penalty. they will never be sued for this. nothing will ever come of this. back when the electric chair was in use, it was common.

when there was a problem administering electricity, the curtains would be closed if suffering was actually going on. i suspect it's illegal under oklahoma law but i also suspect there will never be a lawsuit relating to it. >> sanjay, i know that this lockett guy committed a heinous crime. our constitution says that we have to humanely put these people to death. is there a more humane way? what is that way and i could come up with a couple of things but -- >> it's a fine line between actually executing someone and providing medical care at the same time. i think that's the philosophical tension in the medical community. you don't want your drugs used that you designed to prolong and function in life to be used to kill somebody. that's challenging to get those drugs. are there drugs that could render someone unaware of their surroundings completely pain free? absolutely. those drugs exist. we use them every day. as part of life saving procedures and not life ending

procedures and i think that's what paul is saying as well. it's going to be tough to get the best medications probably for this purpose. >> many thanks. "newsroom," clippers owner donald sterling cannot come to his own games. he can't even step into the building. can the nba really force him to sell the team? guy: hey captain obvious, watch this! captain: when i'm looking for a hotel with a wet pool, i go to hotels.com. you can get up to 50% off with their private sales. that man's privates are no longer private. this is no time for lollygaggin', lad. the chickweed and the dandelions are wreakin' mad havoc! now's the time to send in

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overtaken streets and neighborhoods. the flood threat stretches from florida to new england. a short time ago, malaysia's transport minister announced a preliminary report on the missing plane will be released tomorrow. this as an australian search company stands by claims it found possible wreckage in the bay of bengal. many cnn analysts have shot this down. british actor bob hoskins died at the age of 71. he rose to fame in the 1980s in british gangster films. he passed away in a hospital last night after a bout of pneumonia. the nba has come down hard on donald sterling. will other team owners take up the challenge and force sterling to sell the clippers. clippers fans raised the roof for their team last night. it was the first time the team

had been home since sterling's racist rant audiotape surfaced. speakers beat golden state to take a 3-2 series lead in the playoffs. doc rivers said the game involved the fans and players. >> everyone was going through this. it was almost like everyone wanted to excel tonight and it was good. >> the game came hours after commissioner adam silver acted decisively banning sterling from the nba for life. that means sterling can't go to games, practices or enter any clippers facilities. sterling was find $2.5 million and now of course he faces losing his franchise. we'll talk about that nba move in a moment with rachel nichols. first, let's head to dan simon standing outside of the staples center with more on this game which was amazing. >> reporter: it was really

incredible. fans came out in full force to support their los angeles clippers. 24 hours ago when i was standing in this same spot, the mood was somber. we didn't know if there would be nba boycotts. we didn't know what kind of support we would see from this team. as soon as adam silver rendered that decision, we know what happened. the fans came out in a big way and cheered their los angeles clippers to victory, carol. >> all right. so the game was great. the fans were excited. but this is far from over. walk us through what comes next. >> they have to give donald sterling official notice that they are going to have this vote on whether to relieve him of his fran franchise. he has five days to respond. there's a legal process over a couple weeks and then they supposedly call a vote of the board of governors. it's usually one of the principle owners. the question is will they vote the way everyone is expecting them to vote? it's supposed to be a

three-quarters majority to actually oust sterling. and now we have all of these statements from owners saying they support adam silver. this rush in wave to make fans happy and to do the right thing. a lot of owners' hearts are in the right place. but as you go over the next couple of weeks, as sterling makes his calls to his old cronies, guys he's been around the league -- he's owned the team for 30 years. he's been a fellow owner with a lot of these other owners for a long time. retreats, board meetings, this sort of thing. he'll work the phones and try to bring a few people over to his side and he'll be whispering in their ear. this could be you next. don't set a precedent. interesting to see if owners decide to break apart and vote his way. the difference is that adam silver by issuing a public statement yesterday by laying down the gauntlet in public challenged these owners. it's hard to side with donald sterling now because they'll have their fans and own players

to answer to. there's a great power move on adam silver's part. >> i was going to ask. you would think the commissioner would go behind the scenes and take a quiet vote of ownership before he held that news conference. >> i asked him that. it was so interesting, wasn't it, carol? he said he didn't do it. the reason he didn't do it is he didn't want to know ahead of time. he didn't want to give anyone the opportunity to say no in private. he wanted to do it publicly. i found that fascinating. >> me too. thanks to both of you. regardless of how donald sterling responds to the nba's ban, one thing is for sure. there's plenty of support for the punishment handed down from players and fans alike. >> the players and the fans, we own the game. the owners are just custodians. >> let's hope this is an opportunity for all of us as players, as former players, as a league, as a community, to help educate and take one step

further to eradicating racism in our communities. >> let the nba do what they do. as a fan, i want to get back to playoff basketball. this is the game. racism is a huge situation. especially when you have the president of the united states talking about it. basketball is our sanctuary. all races come together as one and cheer their team on to a victory. >> kind of like a sigh of relief almost. a collective sigh of relief as a team. we don't have to deal with everybody about this. we can just go play and i think like i said it was the right thing. >> i'm thrilled with the outcome. i think most of the players i have spoken to just since the press conference feel the same way and we're looking forward to some very positive changes that will make this city an even more wonderful place than it already

is. >> still to come in the "newsroom," a massive storm system slamming the east coast causing extreme flooding and at least one death. cnn is tracking the storms. >> that's not all. we're still talking about that threat for more severe weather today. we'll give you details coming up after the break. [ male announcer ] this is jim. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto. like warfarin, xarelto is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk. but xarelto is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to that monitoring routine.

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torrential rain is slamming communities in the southeast with massive flooding. check out these pictures just into us. crews rescued a man who was stranded as floodwaters just completely took over the roads

in alabama. you can see this man holding onto a tree as rescue workers made their way to him. he's okay. flooding did kill at least one person in florida near pensacola. more than a foot of rain has already fallen. the water rose to the roof of one suv. crews had to use chainsaws to rescue people trapped in their attics. indra petersons is following this story. >> take a look at d.c. right now. they had flood warnings in that region as well. we talked about florida so let's look at fish river in mobile, alabama. we're talking about the river in major stage of flooding. it has risen 20 feet in the last 12 hours alone. that's what we're talking about with heavy rainfall amounts. as much as five inches an hour. we call it training. thunderstorms coming down in the exact same place over and over again hour after hour. this is the story. it's continuing even as we speak

even moving in toward panama city. look at the last 24 hours and what's going on here is we're talking about wind coming off the gulf here. you see that warm, humid air helps enhance the thunderstorm development. it's sitting in the same area. it's extending all of the way into the northeast. of course the southeast getting hit the hardest. we're all dealing with the flooding concerns from new york city down into the southeast today. that's one side of the equation. a foot of rain out toward mobile. also toward pensacola, florida. maybe up to five inches when you talk about the northeast. the other side of this is severe weather threat. a threat for really enhanced thunderstorms bringing severe weather. pittsburgh all of the way down through jacksonville. we're still going to be concerned with that threat as well. of course anyone trying to head out to the airport, keep in mind even if you're not on the east coast, you can be impacted by the severe weather. look at places like newark. 3.5-hour delays right now. >> indra petersons, thanks so much. the nba wants donald sterling to sell his team.

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condemned killer trying to talk. clayton lockett died 43 minutes after being injected with a sedative that was supposed to knock him out. prison officials say he appeared to die of a heart attack. amanda knox denies as new report that says she killed her roommate over rent. earlier this year the court convicted knox of murder for a second time. the former exchange student remains free in the u.s. after her first conviction was overturned on appeal. the american economy appears frozen by a brutally cold winter. a new report shows that the gdp grew by 0.1 of 1% in the first quarter. analysts say they are hopeful for a stronger second quarter. a private conversation becomes a public scandal and ends with a lifetime ban for nba owner donald sterling and the

nba wants the 29 other owners to put pressure on sterling and force him to sell the team. here to talk about that, a former player for the los angeles clippers, a senior writer for espn the magazine and an nba hall of famer. welcome to all of you. i can't see my third guests. i'm sure he'll pop up somewhere. he's getting seated. michael, i want to start with you. donald sterling may not go down without a fight. this thing could drag out for years. >> you know, i hear what you're saying. they are all attorneys first of all. they have to deal with this. the nba has a problem. we have discovered a bigot and a racist among our family and we have been one of the most racially sensitive organizations in the world. we've been on the leading edge and at this day in age we discovered this privately. what an owner says privately doesn't matter. it doesn't matter if it was

private, publicly or if he was intoxicated at the time. he said what he said. it created a firestorm. now there has to be restitution. i thought what adam silver did yesterday in his short tenure, the honeymoon is over for him. he has to make this right. the first step he did in banning david stern for life sent a powerful message to ex-clippers like myself, ex-nba players like myself that were insulted. we were insulted by that tape. we wondered what would be done. was armageddon going to happen to david stern if possible because he's been elusive in every way possible through the law out here. the situation with other people that will surface over the next couple of months as to how mean and really ugly david stern has been to clipper employees and now we see damaging to the game of basketball.

>> you know, the only thing -- this isn't the first time mr. sterling has been accused of racist behavior. peter, you wrote a 2009 profile of sterling and various discrimination suits he faced over the last decade. yet the nba was silent. so suddenly it seems a little bit hypocritical to me. peter, go ahead. >> there are a few legitimate reasons. there's a new commissioner in town. he's not operating under the same principles that david stern did. the social media intensifies the public demand for official response to be quick and strong. i think that in an unusual way there's this alliance of people who are outraged by the most recent comments. you have lebron james and michael jordan and magic johnson. not only demand but you have the backing to do something. let's face the facts. donald sterling's previous

victims were mostly poor, black and hispanic tenants in his housing units. i'm not sure that either they or the women who sued donald sterling for sexual harassment, those were the people he was in court with, i'm not sure the offenses to them registered the way that these very public insults of popular figures like magic johnson did on this tape. >> they quite obviously did not and denying minorities the chance to rent an apartment is so much worse in a certain way than whatever mr. sterling said to his girlfriend in that house. >> donald sterling paid one of the largest monetary settlements ever reached in a houses discrimination case in california and paid the largest housing discrimination settlement ever to the justice department. we got to depositions in the case and details are horrifying.

one person who was his property manager swore that he said that the odor in one of the buildings was because black people stink. another person testified that he said that mexican men sit around the house and smoke and drink all day. this is just the tip of the iceberg. donald sterling thought he could say and do whatever he wanted and he had the feeling that he could be heedless and he got away with it. he basically got away with it until he offended the wrong people. >> so, rick, why did this take so long do you think? why was he able to buy a team in the first place? >> well, first of all, why is everybody trying to make this into such a big thing and nitpick at stuff? adam silver, a defining moment for him. he handled this just perfectly. he answered all of the questions and answered the question you just brought up. when he was made aware of information about the bias and racism that was existing with donald sterling related to the

nba, they acted on it immediately within two days. and they have taken the steps necessary to try to remove this man from being an owner of an nba basketball team. everyone is trying to make things of it. one reporter, why making a big deal about giving this credit to adam silver. maybe she shouldn't worry about earning an award for her journalistic approach because she's just doing her job. if donald sterling will call on people to see what will happen to get them on his side. trust me, any owner who decides to side with donald sterling in this is a fool. and in the court of public opinion he'll be just as guilty as sterling. i don't see any way that any owner could not vote to have him removed from ownership. this is exactly what should happen. it was perfectly handled and everyone is trying to nitpick on things. the really sad thing is this is

coming at a time when this is the most exciting first round in the nba for playoff games that has ever existed from the time i was a kid, from the time i was a player, from the time i broadcast and the time i'm doing things as a fan now. it's a shame it has been to detract from that because it's been an incredible playoff series so far. my hat goes off to the clipper team for what they did. they made their statement at golden state and that was the end of it. then they went out and played basketball and did what they were supposed to do. >> i totally get what you're saying. i want to inject one thing and i would like to pose this question to michael. i think that perhaps the concerns of some of these owners will be that we're on a slippery slope now. let's say the next time some owner says something a little less heinous, he's now forced to sell the team. who decides what's heinous enough for an owner to have to sell the team? >> i think they're going to have to decide what's more important,

to protect our own or the integrity of the league? i agree with rick berry on adam silver's handling of this yesterday. i don't agree that they weren't aware of his behavior out here in los angeles. it's humiliating to me as an ex-clipper, ex-nba player and los angeles resident to know that this sort of thing goes on in 2014. i mean, they have to put things in place that hold them accountable just as swiftly with justice as it does with the players. obviously that's not in place right now. i mean, adam silver, i thought he did a great gesture in banning this man. he came down hard. i got to believe that he knew of this type of behavior of donald sterling. i think who really needs to step up right now, you really want to know the defining moment for the nba, is for david stern to step up and say what he knows about

donald sterling. he's known him for 25 years. you can't say that this is the only documented situation we have. this reported tape that happened over the weekend. there's a lot of evidence out here in los angeles. you just read the paper. you talk about social media. you can do that with your finger and find out all you want. i don't buy into the fact that this was something that they just had to deal with as of saturday morning when everyone woke up and discovered these horrible things that donald sterling had said about people of color. we have to go back and figure out -- i think with the new tenure of adam silver has to correct this because we can't afford to have this happen again. we can't afford to have players who woke up yesterday morning and said we're boycotting. this sounds like the '50s and jackie robinson situation. it sounds like -- this is setting us back 50 years if we allow this to happen again.

we have an environment where it can happen again. what owners do privately, all 30 of them, that's up to them. obviously adam silver is being paid by them. he has to now force his muscle in there and say we have to show, you know, that we are trying to get better as a league and that our owners have to be held to the same kind of behavior and i think respect that the players do. if this happens to a player, he's suspended as of saturday morning. >> that's right. that's a fascinating conversation. thanks to all of you. thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom," more government buildings in ukraine under siege. the president puts the armed forces on high alert despite new sanctions in place against russia no end is in sight. are these sanctions really working? we'll talk about that next.

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in ukraine, the armed forces have been put on full combat readiness. the interim president says it's because of the threat from russia. russian troops remain gathered near the border with ukraine and pro-russian militants occupy buildings in more than a dozen places. they were hit with sanctions regarding actions by ukraine from the united states and european union. the u.s. assets of dozens of russians have been frozen but doesn't stop them from purchasing american real estate which is a hot market right now. ted rowlands has more for you. >> this is a three bedroom three bathroom property. >> reporter: some call miami the new russian rivera. >> the views of the miami beach. >> reporter: one by one, high end properties are being bought by russian million and

billionaires. many are drawn to lavish lifestyles of the beach, they want to keep a low profile. >> they don't want to give information about their business. >> reporter: as the obama administration goes after powerful russians with ties to putin, some including local ukrainian american critics want the president to go after russian billionaires in america like the russian fertilizer magnet that dropped $88 million on the penthouse of this building on central park west in new york city or a former russian finance minister who paid 37 million for the 78th floor penthouse of the time warner center. >> they feel once the money hits its u.s., it's a great place for them to keep the money. >> reporter: it's a great place to live part-time. a billionaire, a close confident of vladimir putin, docked his 550-foot yacht in new york for two months while his girlfriend

gave birth to their daughter. russian millionaire owns the brooklyn nets while he ran against putin in the 2012 presidential election, he's also viewed as a putin associate. he's talking about putting the team under the control of one of his russian companies. >> if all of these rich people are sanctioned and they see the facts, there's going to be a chain reaction. >> reporter: ukrainian americans we talked to believe increasing the sanctions to include russians buying u.s. real estate will help get putin to back off ukraine. >> if his friends start complaining that they're not able to travel and they're not able to transfer huge amounts of money. >> you're located on downtown miami. >> reporter: for now despite what's happening in ukraine, russians megawealthy are free to invest and spend time in america as they please.

ted rowlands, cnn, chicago. let's talk about those sanctions against russia. brian is the director of project of international security commerce and economic state craft at the university of albany and joins us now. welcome. >> hi. thanks for having me. >> let's talk about what was in ted rowlands' package. the sanctions are against russian billionaires in russia and not russian billionaires in the united states. if there were sanctions against russians in the united states, would that matter? >> it would certainly escalate the severity of the economic pressure that's being placed on russians. the ability of the u.s. government to dramatically alter the foreign policy of vladimir putin is not going to be affected by smalltime sanctions even if it comes against a number of the wealthy, privileged russian elite. i think one of the key factors

that we need to take into account is vladimir putin in approaching the ukrainian crisis has been very strategic. his actions are very well thought out and well executed. when the u.s. encounters foreign policy crisis around the world, one of the regular instruments to apply are economic sanctions. so to think that vladimir putin hasn't accounted for the fact that a number of economic and political elites will likely be sanctioned as a result of what the russian governments are doing, what russian government is doing, is a little naive. this is something i think that vladimir putin has planned for and so i don't think that even expanding the sanctions significantly beyond where they are now as long as they are relatively targeted and limited on elites is going to change the nature of the cost that vladimir putin is facing. >> i read russia's interest in ukraine is not about greed or russian economy but national

interest in survival. you really have to get at that. he doesn't really care. to him this is national pride. this is about russian security. not about money or taking ukraine's resources away or not selling them natural gas or anything like that. >> yeah. i think that's a very fair statement to make. i think that obviously vladimir putin does care about economic welfare of his country but he has a broader portfolio of political interests and i think that he staked a large deal of his reputation on the amount of prestige the russian government has within the region and within the world and with the ukrainian situation, he staked out a lot of his personal credibility to successfully being able to achieve what he views are russia's national interests in its near abroad. >> bryan early, thanks for your

insight. i appreciate it. >> all right. thank you so much. >> sure. still to come in the "newsroom," there's big money in bigotry. we'll look at the dilemma some charities are facing in the wake of donald sterling's racist comments. do you keep his money or give it back? guy: hey captain obvious, watch this! captain: when i'm looking for a hotel with a wet pool, i go to hotels.com. you can get up to 50% off with their private sales.

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donald sterling's charitable foundation. i intrigued me i wrote an op-ed for cnn.com. who new bigotry could bring in big dollars? donald sterling we know you refuse to rent your apartments to blacks and hispanic but can you spare some change to help us fight for civil rights? the naacp chapter not only accepted money but was about to grant him a second lifetime achievement award. it wasn't just charities who came out ahead with money. donald sterling got a bump to his image or sterling used money as a detergent in image laundering. poppy harlow is here with more. good morning, poppy. >> reporter: good morning to you, carol. it turns out that multiple minority focused nonprofits accepted donald sterling's money but how big of a donor is he? one thing we do know, sterling made his giving known. billionaire donald sterling opened his wallet for charity and let people know it.

ucla tells cnn this ad in sunday's "l.a. times" touting his gift for kidney research was placed by sterling himself, not the university. ucla is returning sterling $425,000 donation and rejecting the rest of his $3 million pledge. >> he likes to portray himself as a charitable man. i would say on a spectrum he's about one of the at least charitable billionaires out there. >> reporter: sterling emasked a fortune of nearly $2 billion according to "forbes" largely from real estate with apartments across california. the nba's $2.5 million fine, the maximum allowed, is a drop in the bucket for this billionaire. he bought the l.a. clippers for a reported $12 million in 1981. some estimates put the team's value now at between half a billion and a billion dollars. there's no saying exactly how much sterling has given to

charity but tax records show the donald t. sterling charitable foundation donated $1.4 million since its founding in 2007. that's less than his nba fine. thousands have gone to minority organizations including the united negro college fund and the naacp. >> how much money did donald sterling give to the naacp? >> it was not a significant amount of money. >> reporter: sterling even received a humanitarian of the year award from the black business association and a lifetime achievement award from the los angeles chapter of the naacp in 2009. >> we have to be careful about the money we take and we have to make sure that the color of the money does not taint us and that we can still carry out our mission and we cannot sellout just to get the money. >> reporter: sterling's foundation donated $30,000 to a museum of tolerance but the leader is appalled and says it

won't accept money from sterling ever again. >> we used that $30,000 to combat the kind of racism, hatred and anti-semitism that symbolizes what sterling said in that tape. >> reporter: cnn's calls to sterling's representatives have not been returned and some organizations that have benefited from sterling's fortune want nothing to do with him now. >> fin what shouldn't happen is someone shouldn't get more praise than they deserve. >> reporter: you just heard there at the end of the piece from charity watch's president. he also e-mailed us seeing how small his foundation is, it makes you wonder why he has one except for public image and prestige. i called the foundation yesterday to talk to them about and they told me someone would call it back. they have not at this point. >> i would just say it's easy to say after the fact that you'll return the money. some of these charities had to

know sterling settled one of the biggest housing discrimination lawsuits in the country and then he gets caught talking to his girlfriend making racist comments and everyone gets concerned. i'm going to return the money now. they had to know. >> reporter: we have heard multiple members of the naacp, los angeles chapter, california chapter saying we need to vet where this money is coming from. we have to be sure the color of the money doesn't taint us. interestingly, some of these organizations like the museum of tolerance aren't giving this money back. they will not take money going forward. this brings that clearly into focus going forward. >> does this thing about vetting, a google search, would have done it. you can read more in my editorial on cnn.com/opinion. poppy harlow, thanks so much. we'll be right back. female announcer: sleep train's interest free for 3 event

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thank you so much for joining me today. i'm carol costello. "@ this hour" with berman and michaela starts now. los angeles clippers owner donald sterling banned for life from professional basketball. the nba commissioner vowing to force him to sell his team. will the owners vote that way and will sterling put up a fight? >> chaos in an oklahoma prison when the execution of a killer is botched.

the man inning a agony. 36 people dead in this week's weather and it's not over yet. hello. good morning to you. i'm michaela pereira. >> i'm john berman. 11:00 a.m. in the east. 8:00 a.m. out west. those stories and much more right now "@ this hour." some of the stories we're watching now, nba commissioner adam silver banning los angeles clippers owners donald sterling from the nba for life. this comes just days after the release of those racist remarks that sterling acknowledges he did in fact make. no word allegedly anymore. he made them. some of the game's brightest stars have been weighing in. >> i'm